Support structure for reversing station in an underground mining conveyor

ABSTRACT

A support structure for drive or reversing stations of conveyor or extraction devices in underground mining is described. The support structure has a substructure and an articulated support which may be configured to be vertically adjustable relative thereto by means of a lifting device. At least one spacer element is provided which is configured to be installed between the substructure and the articulated support. A lifting device has two pairs of lifting cylinders whose lifting cylinders are arranged diagonally opposite one another in corner areas of the articulated support and can be actuated in pairs, and that as the spacer element for a lifting stage at least four, preferably six, distance members are provided of which two in each case are placeable in pairs underneath the pair of lifting cylinders which is not loaded during a lifting process.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Stage of International Patent ApplicationNo. PCT/EP2013/002151, filed Jul. 19, 2013, which claims priority toforeign German Patent Application No. 20 2012 102 740.2, filed Jun. 20,2012, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to a support structure for drive orreversing stations of conveying or extracting devices particularly inunderground mining operations, with a substructure in particular restingon the floor, and an articulated support vertically adjustable relativeto this by means of a lifting device, as well as with at least onespacer element which can be installed between the substructure andarticulated support.

TECHNICAL FIELD

In the area of the transition between the longwall face and the gallery,where the coal or the like which has been brought up by the (armoured)face conveyor is transferred to the gallery conveyor for onwardtransportation, it is necessary to support the armoured face conveyor(AFC) in the area of its machine frame at the end which projects intothe gallery so that the material discharge is located at the desiredheight above the gallery conveyor. The conditions which changeconstantly as mining advances at the transition from the face to thegallery, more particularly changes to the incident angle of the faceand/or its load base level above the gallery floor, make it necessary todesign the support structure supporting the armoured face conveyorvariable in order to be able to adjust the position of the supportedmachine frame as the conditions change.

From DE 85 18 433 U a face-gallery transfer is known where the supportstructure for the machine frame of the AFC consists essentially of twoadjusting cylinders and a transfer table attached for articulatedmovement to their top end and on which the machine frame of the AFCrests. With this known construction the consequently high supportingforces must be passed down into the base plate by the adjustingcylinders wherefore these have to be permanently pressurized duringoperation. A further drawback with the known device is that with theface becoming more severe the downhill-slope forces acting on the AFCexert on the transfer table a horizontal force which can be taken up inonly a restricted amount by the adjusting cylinders so that care must betaken for additional support in the horizontal direction.

A further support structure for a drive station in underground mining isknown from DE 202 07 017 U1. The known support structure has a baseplate resting on the floor or on a bed, as well as an articulatedsupport to which the drive station which is to be supported can beattached. Between the base plate and the articulated support are severalsupport boxes arranged one above the other and preferably forming twosupport columns spaced out relative to one another. The support boxesare locked to one another by screw connections. The base plate and thearticulated support are also locked to the relevant support boxadjoining same by screw connections. Through the assembly or dismantlingof single or several support boxes between the base plate andarticulated support, it is possible to change the height of the supportcolumns and, thus, the distance between the base plate and articulatedsupport. The support structure can thus be easily adapted as regards itsheight to the conditions which are constantly changing as the extractionadvances in the mine. In order in the case of the support structure tobuild in further support boxes, an assembly or dismantling tool isprovided, such as for example a vertically operating cylinder. Throughthis auxiliary tool the articulated support is raised (lifted) so that agap is formed between the support columns and the articulated support.Further support boxes can be inserted into this gap. The articulatedsupport is then lowered again until it sits on the support columns whichare now raised. With DE 203 13 946 U1 a similar construction is proposedin which the at least one support box, a further support box arrangedabove or below same, the base plate and/or the articulated support areall locked relative to one another by means of at least one wedgeconnection.

The known constructions have indeed proved themselves in practice buthave drawbacks conditioned by the system and which the presentdisclosure aims to overcome. Thus with the known support structures itis necessary to uncouple the lifting cylinders from a connecting flangeon a lower support box as they reach their maximum extension, then tomove them in (to retract them) and to connect them again tocorrespondingly designed connecting flanges on the support boxes locatedabove same, before a further lift can be executed for installing furthersupport boxes. Correspondingly the reverse happens, when dismantling thesupport boxes to reduce the height of the support structure. The objectof the present disclosure is thus to provide a simpler and faster methodof raising and lowering the articulated support relative to thesubstructure.

The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving orovercoming one or more aspects of prior systems.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a supportstructure for drive or reversing stations of conveyor or extractiondevices is disclosed. The support structure may comprise a substructure,an articulated support, and a lifting device. The lifting device may beconfigured to vertically adjust the articulated support relative to thesubstructure. The lifting device may include two pairs of liftingcylinders to be actuated in pairs. Each pair of lifting cylinders may bearranged diagonally opposite one another in corner areas of thearticulated support. The support structure may further comprise at leastone spacer element configured to be installed between the substructureand the articulated support. Each spacer element may comprise at leastfour distance members of which two in each case are placeable in pairsunderneath the pair of lifting cylinders which is not loaded during alifting process.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method forvertically adjusting a support structure for drive or reversing stationsof conveyor or extraction devices is disclosed. The support structuremay comprise an articulated support to be vertically adjusted relativeto a substructure. The method may comprise supporting the articulatedsupport solely at two diagonally opposite corner areas of thearticulated support. The method may further comprise, if increasing aheight, placing a pair of distance members underneath the other twodiagonally opposite corner areas of the articulated support at which thearticulated support is not supported. The method may further comprise,if decreasing a height, removing a pair of distance members fromunderneath the other two diagonally opposite corner areas of thearticulated support at which the articulated support is not supported.

Other features and aspects of this disclosure will be apparent from thefollowing description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the present disclosure are apparentfrom the drawings and the following description, in which preferredembodiments of the present disclosure will be illustrated and explainedin further detail using examples. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows in side view a reversing station of an armoured faceconveyor used in underground mining with a transfer to a galleryconveyor arranged underneath with a support structure according to thepresent disclosure in a construction stage;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a support structure according to thepresent disclosure in an elevated construction stage;

FIG. 3 shows the subject of FIG. 2 in a vertical sectional view;

FIG. 4 shows the subject of FIGS. 2 and 3 in horizontal sectional view;

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of a distancemember being used with the support structure according to the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 shows the subject of FIG. 5 in a cross-section along the lineVI-VI;

FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of a distance member being used withthe support structure according to the present disclosure in anillustration corresponding to FIG. 5; and

FIG. 8 shows a section of an elevating structure comprised of severaldistance members of the second embodiment and arranged between thesubstructure and the articulated support of the support structureaccording to the present disclosure in a perspective view.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following is a detailed description of exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The exemplary embodiments described therein andillustrated in the drawings are intended to teach the principles of thepresent disclosure, enabling those of ordinary skill in the art toimplement and use the present disclosure in many different environmentsand for many different applications. Therefore, the exemplaryembodiments are not intended to be, and should not be considered as, alimiting description of the scope of patent protection. Rather, thescope of patent protection shall be defined by the appended claims.

FIG. 1 shows a transfer marked as a whole by 10 between an armoured faceconveyor 11 and a gallery conveyor 12 in an underground miningextraction plant.

The armoured face conveyor 11 is provided at its end area lying abovethe gallery conveyor 12 with a reversing station 13 which is supportedat the desired height above the gallery conveyor 12 by means of asupport structure 14. This support structure 14 is the subject of thepresent disclosure and is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 2 ff.

As can be seen, the support structure 14 has a lower substructure 16which is supported relative to the floor 15, and an upper articulatedsupport 17 which is vertically adjustable relative to the substructureand on which the reversing station 13 is mounted for articulatedmovement, as can be seen in FIG. 1. The articulated support 17 can beadjusted in its height relative to the substructure 16 by means of alifting device 18 in order to install between the substructure and thearticulated support one or more layers 19 a-h of spacer elements 20 inorder to be able to adjust the vertical position of the articulatedsupport 17 and thus the reversing station 13 which is attached forarticulated movement to same.

The lifting device 18 consists essentially of four lifting cylinders 21in total which are mounted in the corner areas of a roughly rectangularbase plate 22 of the articulated support 17. The four lifting cylinders21 are combined into two lifting cylinder pairs A, B so that the twolifting cylinders of each one lifting cylinder pair lie diagonallyopposite one another. The lifting cylinders 21 of each lifting cylinderpair A and B respectively can be actuated in pairs, for example, thelifting cylinder in the left front corner and the lifting cylinder inthe right rear corner are actuated simultaneously or the liftingcylinder in the left rear corner and the lifting cylinder in the rightfront corner are actuated simultaneously.

The spacer elements 20, to which the articulated support 17 can bemounted off-set by the different layers 19 relative to the substructure16, consist of identically configured distance members 23 which can belocked with positive engagement to one another and to the substructure16 as well as to the articulated support 17. For each lifting stage orlayer 19 a-h a total of six distance members are provided whose lengthand width are each dimensioned so that the sum of the length of onedistance member and its width is adapted (matched) to the width of thesupport structure 14 and the length of two distance members plus thewidth of one distance member is adapted to the length of the supportstructure 14 (FIG. 4). The distance members are formed in cross-sectionas roughly I-shaped profiled strips which can be seen particularlyclearly in FIGS. 5 to 7. To lock the distance members to one another orto the substructure and the articulated support, there are at the bottomon the distance members 23 and the base plate 22 of the articulatedsupport 17 projecting bolt pins 24 which in the installed state fit inadapted bolt sockets 25 in further distance members or in thesubstructure 16 mounted underneath. The bolt pins 24 are formed astubular sleeves which are inserted between the arm 26 at the top and thearm 27 at the bottom of the distance members 23 as part of the web 28connecting these together, wherein they project down a little furtherover the lower arm 27, as can be best seen from FIG. 6.

Whilst the bolt pins 24 in the illustrated embodiments of the distancemembers 23 are only located in their end areas at the relevant right andleft end of the distance members, the bolt sockets 25 are provided onthe upper arm 26 not only on the right and left in the end areas, butadditional bolt sockets 25′ are located off-set inwards about an amountwhich is adapted to the width of one distance member.

In order to be able to fixedly connect the distance members to oneanother and to the upper articulated support or the lower substructure,in the case of the first embodiment of the distance members, as shown inFIGS. 5 and 6, several cylinder screws 29 are provided each time whichare pushed through bores 30 provided in the upper and lower arms 26, 27and are screwed to securing nuts 31. In the case of the embodimentillustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, the securing elements are formed as boltpins 33 provided with an oblong head 32 wherein the oblong heads 32 canbe pushed through oblong holes 34 arranged on the relevant distancemembers above or on the articulated support and can be turned by onequarter turn to produce a positive locking connection. The bolt pins areprovided with a threaded section 35 on which a locking nut 36 can bescrewed. The locking nuts are designed as hammer nuts with four hammernoses 37 arranged spaced out round the perimeter to which a tool such asa hammer or chisel can be fitted in order to be able to particularlytighten up the locking nuts and also to enable subsequent release bymeans of the hammer and/or chisel.

The design of the distance members described enables advantageously thedistance members of two superposed layers 19 a-h to be arranged off-setrelative to one another, namely by an amount which corresponds to thewidth of the distance members.

In order to raise the articulated support 17 by one layer, first thesecuring elements, thus the screw connections 29, 31 and 33, 36 betweenthe articulated support and the layer of distance members underneath or(in the lowest position) the substructure, are to be released. One ofthe pairs 21A or 21B of lifting cylinders is then actuated so that thedownwardly extending piston rods 38 of the diagonally opposite actuatedlifting cylinders 21 move into the bolt sockets 25 located directlyunderneath and then become supported on the upper edge of the sleeveinserted there or on the top side of the upper arm 26. As the twoactuated lifting cylinders of the relevant active lifting cylinder pairA or B extend further out, the articulated support 17 is raised furtherup so that then two distance members can be placed in pairs, thusdiagonally opposite one another underneath the lifting cylinder of theother lifting cylinder pair B, A, which is not active in this liftingprocess, wherein preferably a locking of these two distance elementswith the layer underneath immediately takes place. The cylinders of thesecond cylinder pair are then loaded and extend out downwards wherebythey fit into bolt sockets at the ends of the distance members installedimmediately before and during subsequent inward movement of the pistonrods of the cylinders of the first lifting cylinder pair take over theirfunction and thus hold the articulated support 17 furthermore in aposition raised up so that now the remaining four distance members canbe installed and locked with the layer underneath. The lifting cylindersof the second cylinder pair then move in again and hereby set thearticulated support down on the newly installed spacer element layerwhereupon the locking then takes place between the articulated supportand the new layer.

In other words, if increasing or decreasing a height of the articulatedsupport 17, the same may be supported solely at two diagonally oppositecorner areas of the articulated support 17 by means of a pair 21A, 21Bof lifting cylinders 21. Then, if increasing a height, a pair ofdistance members 23 is placed underneath the other two diagonallyopposite corner areas of the articulated support 17 at which thearticulated support 17 is not supported. Afterwards, the supporting ofthe articulated support 17 is translocated from the two diagonallyopposite corner areas of the articulated support 17 to the other twodiagonally opposite corner areas of the articulated support 17 by meansof an other pair 21A, 21B of lifting cylinders 21. The articulatedsupport 17 is now supported on the placed pair of distance members 23.Underneath the two diagonally opposite corner areas of the articulatedsupport 17 at which the articulated support 17 is not supported, afurther pair of distance members 23 is placed. Thus, the articulatedsupport 17 can be supported on a new layer of distance members 23.

On the other hand, if decreasing a height of the articulated support, apair of distance members 23 is removed from underneath the other twodiagonally opposite corner areas of the articulated support 17 at whichthe articulated support 17 is not supported. Then supporting istranslocated to the other two diagonally opposite corner areas of thearticulated support 17, and a further pair of distance members 23 can beplaced underneath the two diagonally opposite corner areas of thearticulated support 17 at which the articulated support 17 is notsupported. Thus, the articulated support 17 can be lowered to besupported on a lower layer of distance members 23.

It can be seen that the distance members which are all formed the same,can be used in all possible installation positions which makes theirhandling much easier. Since the distance members of one layer are eachoff-set by an amount corresponding to their width relative to thedistance members of the layer lying below or above same, a very stableconstruction is obtained which makes it possible to build up the supportstructure 14 even to a level which for reasons of stability was notreached with the hitherto known constructions.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present disclosure discloses a lifting device that has two pairs oflifting cylinders whose lifting cylinders are arranged diagonallyopposite one another in corner areas of the articulated support and canbe actuated in pairs and in that as a spacer element for a lifting stageat least four distance members are provided of which two in each casecan be placed in pairs underneath the lifting cylinders of the pair oflifting cylinders which are not loaded during a lifting process.

With such a construction by alternating actuation of the liftingcylinders of the two pairs of cylinders arranged diagonally to oneanother in the corner areas of the articulated support, it may becomepossible to lift the articulated support relative to the substructureunderneath same or the distance elements located thereon by as a generalrule roughly more than one height stage, then to install each twodistance members in the resulting free space underneath the (retracted)lifting cylinder, which is non-active with this lifting process, of theother cylinder pair and then to load this, whilst (at the same time orimmediately afterwards) the cylinders of the first cylinder pair areretracted again so that then distance members can also be installed inthese corner areas. It may be thereby not necessary that the liftingcylinders are fixedly attached before each lifting process on thestructural element (articulated support or distance member) arrangedunderneath same, since the active lifting forces act practicallyexclusively vertically and are reliably dissipated downwards evenwithout any solid connection. In order thus to increase the stability,it may be advantageous if the distance members and/or the substructureare provided in their areas located underneath the lifting cylinderswith guide recesses or bolt sockets into which the extending piston rodsof the lifting cylinders positively engage by their relevant end areaand are supported on a stop face located preferably a little underneaththe top side of the distance members or substructure.

It may preferable if the distance members may be formed identical sothat each distance member can be inserted at any point in the supportstructure. It may be also advantageous if the distance members can belocked positively with one another and/or with the substructure and thearticulated support, which can be implemented for example in that thedistance members may be provided with downwardly or upwardly projectingbolt pins which in the installed state fit into conforming bolt socketsin further distance members arranged below or above same or in thesubstructure or in the articulated support. So that an unintendedremoval of the articulated support or the distance members from therelevant parts of the structure located below cannot happen, it ispreferably proposed that the distance members can be locked relative toone another and/or to the substructure or the articulated support bymeans of securing elements such as by way of example safety screwconnections or bolt wedges.

A very advantageous configuration may be reached if the securingelements may be designed as bolt pins provided with an oblong headwherein the oblong heads can be pushed through oblong holes arranged onthe distance members and/or the substructure or articulated support, andcan then be turned about roughly 90° for a positive locking engagement.The arrangement can thereby be produced so that the bolt pin may beprovided with a threaded section on which a locking nut can be screwed.This design may enable a very rapid assembly of the securing elements toconnect the distance members which are arranged one above the other toone another and to the substructure or the articulated support, sincethe locking nut can hereby be already screwed on the threaded sectionwhen the bolt pin is pushed with its oblong head through two mutuallyaligned oblong holes of the structural parts which lie one above theother and which are to be locked to one another. The bolt element needthen only be turned by a quarter turn so that the areas of the oblonghead projecting at the sides fit behind the narrow sides of the relevantoblong hole. The locking nut which is already screwed onto the threadedsection can then be tightened up firmly. In order hereby to enable aparticularly solid screw connection which can however also becomereleased again without difficulty, it may be advantageous if thesecuring elements or their bolt pins can be screwed to locking nutsprovided as hammer nuts for securing the distance members to one anotheror to the substructure and the articulated support.

It may be particularly advantageous if the distance members of twosuperposed spacer element layers are/become arranged off-set relative toone another. This then produces a very stable structure for the supportstructure even with very great construction heights. It may be possiblethat for each lifting stage six distance members are/become providedwherein the width to length ratio of the sides of the support structurethen amounts to about 2:1. The distance members may be preferablydesigned as profiled strips shaped with a double T or I-shapedcross-section.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have beendescribed herein, improvements and modifications may be incorporatedwithout departing from the scope of the following claims.

1. A support structure for drive or reversing stations of conveyor orextraction devices, the support structure comprising: a substructure; anarticulated support; a lifting device configured to vertically adjustthe articulated support relative to the substructure, the lifting deviceincluding two pairs of lifting cylinders to be actuated in pairs, eachpair of lifting cylinders being arranged diagonally opposite one anotherin corner areas of the articulated support; and at least one spacerelement configured to be installed between the substructure and thearticulated support, each spacer element comprising at least fourdistance members of which two in each case are placeable in pairsunderneath the pair of lifting cylinders which is not loaded during alifting process.
 2. The support structure according to claim 1, whereinthe distance members and/or the substructure are provided in their areaslocated underneath the lifting cylinders with guide recesses or boltsockets in which extending piston rods of the lifting cylinders engagewith positive locking action by their relevant end areas and aresupported on a stop face which is located a little underneath the upperside of the distance members or substructure.
 3. The support structureaccording to claim 1, wherein the distance members are of identicaldesign.
 4. The support structure according to claim 1, wherein thedistance members are lockable positively to one another, to thesubstructure, and/or to the articulated support.
 5. The supportstructure according to claim 4, wherein the distance members areprovided with downwardly or upwardly projecting bolt pins which in theinstalled state fit into matching bolt sockets in further distancemembers arranged above or below or in the substructure or in thearticulated support.
 6. The support structure according to claim 1,wherein the distance members are lockable to one another and/or to thesubstructure or to the articulated support by means of securing elementssuch as, for example, safety screw connections or bolt wedges.
 7. Thesupport structure according to claim 1, wherein the securing elementsare formed as bolt pins with an oblong head, the oblong heads beingpushable through oblong holes arranged on the distance members, thesubstructure, and/or the articulated support, and being turnable byabout 90° for positive locking connection.
 8. The support structureaccording to claim 7, wherein the bolt pin is provided with a threadedsection onto which a locking nut is screwable.
 9. The support structureaccording to claim 6, wherein the securing elements or their bolt pinsare screwable to locking nuts provided as hammer nuts in order to securethe distance members to one another or to the substructure and to thearticulated support.
 10. The support structure according to claim 1,wherein the distance members of two superposed spacer element layers arearranged off-set relative to one another.
 11. The support structureaccording to claim 1, wherein six distance members are provided for eachlifting stage.
 12. The support structure according to claim 1, whereinthe distance members are formed as profiled strips having a roughlydouble T- or I-shaped cross-section.
 13. A method for verticallyadjusting a support structure for drive or reversing stations ofconveyor or extraction devices, the support structure comprising anarticulated support to be vertically adjusted relative to asubstructure, the method comprising: supporting the articulated supportsolely at two diagonally opposite corner areas of the articulatedsupport; and if increasing a height, placing a pair of distance membersunderneath the other two diagonally opposite corner areas of thearticulated support at which the articulated support is not supported;and if decreasing a height, removing a pair of distance members fromunderneath the other two diagonally opposite corner areas of thearticulated support at which the articulated support is not supported.14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: translocating thesupporting of the articulated support from the two diagonally oppositecorner areas of the articulated support to the other two diagonallyopposite corner areas of the articulated support; if increasing aheight, placing another pair of distance members underneath the twodiagonally opposite corner areas of the articulated support at which thearticulated support is not supported; and if decreasing a height,removing another pair of distance members from underneath the twodiagonally opposite corner areas of the articulated support at which thearticulated support is not supported.
 15. The method of claim 13,wherein the step of supporting is performed by means of a pair oflifting cylinders.